In the op-ed “Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy,” Nicholas Kristof makes an argument that it is unwise to cast all Trump voters into the same wide category.  When I first pulled up the article, the title suggested to me that I was about to read the words of a pro-Trump writer defending Trump and his actions in some way.  As it turns out, Kristof is not a Trump supporter.  In fact, he is quite critical of President Trump.  As a columnist for The New York Times and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Kristof in this article simply encourages the reader to channel his or her frustration to the right source.  This Harvard grad writes articles with an emphasis on human rights abuses and social injustices, and understandably Kristof is displeased with the new president, but he makes a valid point that “it’s short-sighted to direct liberal fury at the entire mass of Trump voters” and to view them as the enemy.

 

During this past presidential election, many people disassociated themselves from friends and family once it was revealed that they were in opposite camps, Trump vs. Clinton, and the aftermath has been disheartening.  Some of the back and forth shared on social media has been downright ugly and, quite frankly, has caused me to view many people differently too, not based on who they voted for, but the manner in which they’ve expressed their opinions … nasty, name-calling, stereotyping, putting large groups of people in one big lump.  Hmmm, isn’t that the very thing so many of us are concerned about Trump doing?  Sometimes I agree with the premise of what people are saying, but I’m too often struck by the force of ugliness with which those views are expressed and the resulting irrational sound of it all.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”  People on both sides are making blanket judgments about the other … baby loudmouth liberals, proud bigot republicans, just as an example.  Too many are just caught up criticizing, which leaves no room for intelligent debate.

Kristof is troubled by the condescension that is being directed not just at President Trump (who he believes well deserves it), but he warns that “demonizing Trump supporters feeds the dysfunction of our political system.”  I agree with this sentiment.  Sure, there’s plenty to worry about, but not everyone who voted for Trump embraces everything he’s saying and doing.  I know a handful of people who now wish they hadn’t voted for Trump.  He appealed to those that wanted someone to take action, to fix things that were broken for them.  Well, there’s no question he’s taking action.  (This sort of conjures up images of a bull in a china shop for me).  Kristof’s point is that it is not effective to demonize everyone who voted for Trump and that to continue to do so may work to entrench them into Trump’s camp even more by mocking them and refusing to listen.

I agree with Kristof that while many people are disgusted by Trump’s “otherizing,” we should all be careful not to stereotype people by who they voted for, lest we find ourselves doing the very same thing we abhore.  I’m not unrealistically thinking that Republicans and Democrats are likely to hold hands and sing Kumbaya any time soon, but, like Kristof, I do believe it behooves everyone to stop demonizing others in a blanket fashion and to direct any animus at exactly who it needs to be directed at. 

Many people, myself included, have found themselves scratching their heads wondering how people have such vastly differing views of the same thing.  In the NPR article “When It Comes to Our Politics, Family Matters,” Shankar Vendantam invites us to consider the parallels of political views and parenting styles, the way in which we view family.  Vedantam focuses his reporting on human behavior and the social sciences and has written about how unconscious biases influence people.  Although this article was featured and the podcast aired in September 2016, during the middle of the heated run for presidency, it is still relevant because … well, as we all know, people are still scratching their heads, exasperated by the incomprehension of how people see things so differently from themselves.

I applied Vendantam's theory as I thought about all the people that I know and their accompanying points of view, and I found that there is indeed a parallel.  As the article states, real life is much more nuanced, but this will certainly pique the interest of anyone puzzled with the great divide as I have been.  After reading the article, I highly encourage you to play the audio podcast associated with it.  The added voices and sound bites with more extended coverage on this topic is very interesting.  This article is very much worth reading (and listening to) because it introduces a new perspective from which to view things, and it could help us have a better understanding of all people and where their views may be rooted.